BOSS Richard Hill declared Eastleigh’s shock 1-0 decking by Dover Athletic a “punch on the nose” rather than a knockout blow.

Results elsewhere saw to it that the Spitfires can travel to relegation-haunted Welling United tomorrow (3pm) with their Vanarama Conference play-off destiny still in their own hands.

Aldershot’s ex-Eastleigh favourite Brett Williams did Hill’s men an enormous favour on Friday, playing a starring role as the Shots stopped Forest Green Rovers in their tracks 3-1 in Gloucestershire.

That, combined with Woking being reined in 2-2 by Welling on Saturday, means the Spitfires – still with a game in hand – can mathematically leapfrog the pair of them into fifth spot.

But while those results helped dilute the disappointment of the Dover defeat, Eastleigh will surely have spent most of an overcast Easter Sunday wondering how on earth they let three crucial points escape them.

For much of the 90 minutes at the Silverlake, only one team looked capable of winning – and it certainly wasn’t the Kent coast visitors who, for all their admirable defensive resilience, offered precious little going forward.

Yet, against the run of play, the Spitfires were made to pay for a fatal lapse of concentration in the 71st minute as defender Sean Raggett headed Chris Kinnear’s Whites to a season’s double over Hill’s men, who lost 2-1 at Crabble in August.

The 1,703 Silverlake crowd were still berating the woodwork for denying James Constable a deserved opener when Dover won a corner on the left.

Solomon Taiwo delivered and Raggett escaped his marker to plant a header past ex-Whites keeper Ross Flitney, inflicting Eastleigh’s fifth home defeat since the turn of the year.

The fury with which Flitney flung his gloves into the dugout on his way off the pitch told you all needed to know about the pain of this setback.

Like the old footballing cliché goes, Eastleigh created enough chances to have won two games – as Hill was quick to point in his post-mortem.

Hill, forced to watch on from the stand by a two-match touchline ban, said: “When you fail to mark someone from a set-piece, you are going to concede at this level.

“But, as much as that is a mistake, so is not scoring when you get a good chance and we had a lot of good chances today, particularly in the first half, and didn’t take them.

“I won’t have anyone tell me we didn’t play well because some of our play was pretty decent, but I will accept that it was one of those games where we haven’t been good enough in the opposition’s box.”

Two seasons ago Dover keeper Mitch Walker was a thorn in Eastleigh’s side when they lost 4-2 on penalties at Crabble in the Conference South play-off semi-final and, once again, he delighted in throwing obstacles in their path.

Having earlier watched a Constable effort whistle past his right-hand upright, Walker brilliantly thwarted the Eastleigh No9 and player/assistant manager Craig McAllister in quick succession shortly before half-time.

Jai Reason, back from a two-match suspension, replaced Midson around the hour mark and it was from his assist that the hard-working Constable so nearly opened the scoring in the 69th minute, drilling a shot against the crossbar of the clubhouse end goal.

Raggett’s gift header just a couple of minutes later only added to Eastleigh’s general sense of injustice but, the harder they tried to atone in the last 20 minutes, the less likely they looked to penetrate a dogged defence.

“I put Dan Walker on to give us a bit of width, but we didn’t give him the ball,” shrugged Hill.

“In the last 20 minutes we went too direct and didn’t pass the ball well enough.

“I will never, ever question my players’ desire, it was there in bucketloads at the end, but we became a bit predictable.

“People may draw the conclusion that me sitting in the stand made a difference, but it didn’t affect anything at all.

“I’ve often considered sitting and watching games somewhere else.”

Hill made a special effort to personally thank Hertford referee David Rock and his fellow officials for their handling of the game.

“The ref was decent and hats off to him for letting play flow and contributing to a decent game,” he said.

Hill and striker Deon Burton are again suspended for Welling tomorrow, while left-back Michael Green is a doubt after limping off ten minutes from time on Saturday.

Eastleigh: Ross Flitney, Will Evans, Michael Green (Joe Partington, 80), Dean Beckwith, Jamie Turley, Brian Howard (Dan Walker, 72), Ben Stevens, Harry Pell, James Constable, Craig McAllister, Jack Midson (Jai Reason, 62). Subs (not used): Craig Stanley, Paul Reid.

Dover Athletic: Mitch Walker, Sean Raggett, Richard Orlu, Sean Francis, Nick Dervadics, Stefan Payne (Liam Bellamy, 77), Tom Murphy, Tyrone Sterling, Ricky Modeste, Solomon Taiwo (Tom Wynter, 86), Connor Essam. Subs (not used): Barry Cogan, Adam Mekki, Joe O’Cearuill.

Referee: David Rock (Hertford) Attendance: 1,703